YES! You Can Keep Your New Year's Resolutions in 2017 - Kevin Ward

Hey there, it's Kevin Ward, the founder of yes Masters Real Estate Success Training, and I'm here today at home. We're just finishing up the Christmas holidays and getting ready for New Year's, and I hope you're getting ready for New Year's and hopefully enjoying happy holidays. And most importantly, I hope you're getting ready for an amazing 2017. And maybe this year, 2016 has been a banner year for you, and you're just looking to elevate and accelerate and raise the bar even more. Or for some of you, maybe 2016 has not been a great year. It's been a year of struggle or a year of loss or a year of disappointment, or maybe a year where you just didn't live up to your own standards or didn't live up to your own potential. And you know it. And you're looking at the new year and going like, this is my time, it's my chance. And there's something very cool about a new year because it's like starting a new game. It's like a new opportunity that you can start from scratch and you can just hit the ground running. You. You can create your momentum. And no matter how bad you played last year, it's a new year. And it's kind of like, in a way, I think of it like a basketball game. No matter how bad you did in the last game, this is a new game. It's a new opportunity to start over. And I can remember when I played basketball when I was younger, and I remember the games that we tended to dominate. And I can remember one tournament in particular which was probably my best tournament in my life. And what I remember was the championship game. We were outmatched. We were outgunned. We were the underdogs. And I just remember us sitting there in the locker room before the game started, and we were planning, and we were just talking about how we were going to play, and we didn't do a lot of talking. And then there was just a lot of sitting and reflecting. Like, we went out there and I knew in my mind that I was going to play my best game ever. That was just the commitment. And we were going to come out firing, and we did. And I remember getting the opening tip off, and I dribbled down, I made a jump shot where I was kind of turning, jumping and turning in midair and shooting. And it. And it's one of those, like, as I'm making the shot, I'm like, maybe this was not the best shot to take, but I just Remember feeling it when I let go of the ball, it's going in and the ball went in the hoop. And that just kind of started it and created momentum and for the entire game. And I want your year to start that way. I want your year to start with momentum, to start out of the gates where everything is going the way. What are your. What is it? How are you going to start? How are you going to make it happen and create momentum for a great year? And so I want to just share with you today three keys to how to make great New Year's resolutions and how to keep those resolutions and actually make them may count for something. And a lot of people are kind of get down on the idea of New Year's resolutions. New Year's resolutions suck. I don't, you know, why waste your time? I don't make New Year's resolutions because nobody keeps them. And yet the reality is New Year's resolutions can be incredibly powerful. And so I want to talk about how do you make and keep great resolutions? So three keys to making and keeping great resolutions. Number one is commit. That's the first is whatever you decide, I want to do this to start the new year. This is some commitments that I'm making. It cannot be a New Year's wish. And I think that's what most people do when they, they don't make New Year's resolutions, they make New Year's wishes. So this year I'm going to exercise every day. I'm going to get healthy, I'm going to do this. And they really want it, but they only want it bad enough to make a wish out of it. In other words, I hope it goes great, but they don't have the true commitment that says, this is what I have to do, I have no option, and I am committed to do it no matter what. Because what happens is, is you start wanting it. Like, let's just say this year you're going to get healthy. Okay, well, just. That's a common one. Probably a number one resolution in America is people are going to eat healthier, exercise more and so forth. So I'm going to do it. We start out and we're like, yeah, I'm going to do it. We join the gym or whatever it is. And then there comes a day. It may be day two, it may be day five, it may be day seven or day 14, but there comes a day when you don't feel like it. Something comes up, something happens, and it's like, ah, I don't feel like it and we just don't feel it at that moment. The question is, are you going to follow your feelings or are you going to follow your commitment? And see, here's the. Here is. The only way you will ever have a breakthrough in your life is when you choose to follow your commitment rather than follow your feelings. And what happens is we follow our feelings, and our feelings lead us in the wrong direction when it comes to having breakthroughs, when it comes to achievement, we follow our emotions when they're weak and we make those bad decisions. But when we follow our commitment, the best in the world, the highest achievers, are the ones who. They follow their commitment even when they don't feel like it. And you got to know. You got to know that if you make a resolution, there's going to come a moment when you're not going to feel like it. So you have to commit. Number one is commit. Die hard. I will not fail. I will not give up. I will not quit. I will not mess up. I will not let myself down. Commitment number two, the second word I want to share with you is rebound. Rebound. And here's the reason that one's important is because even though you commit, there is a very, like, a very possible likelihood that you are at one point going to fail in your commitment. You're going to. Whatever your resolution is, you're going to miss it one day, you're going to mess up, you're going to fail, you're going to flake, you're going to let yourself down, you're going to forget. And when that happens, that is probably the most critical moment of transformation. And that is, am I going to allow my failures to stop me, or am I going to just allow the failure to pass on by, get right back up and move right on? And I can remember my sophomore year in high school on the basketball team. Coach Milson, who was the best coach I ever had, he was the one who taught me that no matter what, when you make a shot, what's your commitment? Your commitment is it's always going to go in, right? But there's gonna come a time you're gonna miss the shot. And so he said, always follow your shot. Always follow your shot. Which means as soon as we shot, as soon as I let the ball left my hand, I was supposed to move to the basket in case I missed, so that I could rebound it, get the rebound and put it back in. And I want you to think of that when it comes to keeping your commitment, when it comes to keeping your New Year's resolution, and that is always follow your shot, always follow your commitment when the day comes. So that when the day comes and you miss the shot, when you miss doing and following through what you said, you're going to do that, you're not going like, oh, I missed it. You're going like you're moving toward the goal, toward the aim, so that when you miss, you can take the rebound, you take the missed shot, you pick it up and you shoot it again. In other words, you just keep going. Don't allow failures to stop you. If it's worth. If it's worth committing to, it's worth picking up after you fall down and there's. You may. You're going to fall down at times, you're going to make mistakes, you're going to struggle. And you got to be willing to step in there, go for the rebound and not quit. Keep shooting until you make it, and you'll make it. And then number three. And here's the real magic of New Year's resolutions. The magic is this is the third word, and that's the word automate. Automate. Make the New Year's resolution something that happens automatically. How do you do that? By creating it and making it into a habit. How do you do that? By doing it every day until it becomes easier and more automatic to do it than it is not to do it. Now, the latest research that we've seen from Europe, from Florida, from some of the greatest experts in the science of habit creation, say it takes 66 days to create a habit to the point of what they call automaticity, where that it's easier to do it than it is not to do it, where it becomes automatic. And I've been, if you've been watching my videos or if you're one of my coaching members, you know, this year I've talked a lot about automaticity, about, about how long it takes to hardwire a habit so that it becomes automatic. And this is where the victory happens with New Year's resolutions. And that is when the resolution to create the new habit is now created and you don't have to work at it anymore. It becomes automatic. Now, here's the challenge. 66 days, that's the challenge is you've got to be willing to commit to the resolution and have the willpower to say, I will commit and, and I will do it for 66 days and I will not fail when I. And if I do fail, I'm going to get right back on and I'm going to keep right on going Until I hit that 66 days, until the new habit becomes automatic. Automate the resolution. Make it happen every day until you don't have to work at it anymore. And willpower is no longer required to make the new behavior stick. Now, here's the rub. Here's the challenge is statistically and yes, this is actually a statistic. The statistics say that January 15th is the day by which 95% of all Americans who set New Year's resolutions have already messed it up. That. That by January 15th, 95% of all new Year's resolutions have already been blown, have already been tossed out the door, out the window, out with the trash, and they're already gone. Look, if you're going to treat a New Year's resolution that way, it's not a resolution. That's why I call it. It's a New Year's wish. A resolution means to resolve. To resolve means to make a firm commitment to an action, to a certain way of being, thinking, or doing. And that is the power of the New Year's resolutions. Look, there's some things in your life you know that could be better. There are some areas in your life where you know you could do better, where you could show up better, where you could be more powerful, more effective, more productive, more dynamic as a human being in your life, in your work, in your family, in your personal happiness. There's some things that you know that if you made these changes would make a huge difference. Those are the things that I'm going to challenge you to turn into your New Year's resolutions. Resolve. Commit to make Those changes starting January 1, starting New Year's Day. And no, it's going to be 66 days of work. But if you'll make those changes and you'll resolve and stick to it for 66 days, all of a sudden. And 66 days is an average. May take a little less time, may take a little longer time. But what happens is about 66 days, it's going to all of a sudden become automatic. And when it becomes automatic, until that time, you got to be willing to rebound when you miss, got to be willing to get back up when you fail. You got to be willing to follow your commitments, not your feelings. But when you do that, everything changes. And when you make the changes, everything gets better. And when you get better, you get happier. So here's what you have to understand about a Happy New Year is happiness is something that you're going to create by the choices you make. And when you make those choices long enough and consistently enough. They become the new habits that will make 2017 your best year ever. That's my wish for you. If you like this video, give it a thumbs up. Also, share it with other people that you know are wanting to have a banner year in 2017. Until then, get ready. Make this your time to have your best year ever.